DNA shows remains those of Aussie bandit

SYDNEY – The headless remains of Australia’s most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, have been identified, officials said today, ending a decades-long mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the folk hero’s body.

Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Australia’s Victoria state in the 19th century, was hanged in 1880. His final resting place was unknown, though it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates in a mass grave at a prison.

Officials pinpointed the location of the grave in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies for analysis. A DNA sample from one of Kelly’s descendants confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the notorious Ned.

“To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing,” said Victoria Attorney General Robert Clark.

Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878-80. These days, he is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood or Jesse James-like character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass.